Canadian Olympic curler says he's no cheat, attacks Sweden - ESPN

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — The Canadian curler at the center of a spiraling controversy at the Winter Olympics insisted Saturday that he was not a cheat and postulated that his team might be the target of a «premeditated» attack by Sweden, one of its biggest rivals for the gold medal.

Marc Kennedy acknowledged he «probably could have handled it better» after launching an expletive-laden outburst toward Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of breaking rules by «double-touching» — essentially, touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice — during Canada's 8-6 win in round-robin play late Friday.

However, Kennedy, 44, said he did not — and has never — deliberately taken to the ice «with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating.»

Footage circulating online appeared to show Kennedy breaching curling rules by touching the granite stone with his outstretched finger after he had already released it. Asked about the footage, Kennedy said: «Yes, I'm not even going there. I've never even known that to be a concern before. It's never ever come up in conversation.»

«And if somebody said to you, 'Hey, do you double-touch all the time?' I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn't even tell you if I do or not,» he said.

He added his own theory, suggesting the whole thing might have been «premeditated planning to try to catch us.»

«They've come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,» Kennedy said.

The saga has rocked the usually sedate world of curling and involves two teams that play each other regularly outside the Olympics and have some of the best players in the game.

Kennedy received a verbal warning from governing body World Curling a day after the feisty